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'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' ignites with Jennifer Lawrence

By Rob Lowman, Los Angeles Daily News

Posted:
11/15/2013 09:30:32 AM MST

Updated:
11/15/2013 09:44:45 AM MST

The opening of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” finds its heroine, Katniss Everdeen, crouching uneasily at the edge of a lake, bow in hand, unsure of who and where her enemies are. Although she is supposedly safe in her home turf of District 12, the young woman is clearly haunted, a veteran of death. Director Francis Lawrence’s close-up style immediately thrusts the viewer into Katniss’ chaotic world.

The first movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ young-adult novels, “The Hunger Games,” which featured kids killing kids for televised sport, was too often a turgid portrait of a dystopian society punctuated by the horrors of combat. The good news about the second film in the trilogy is that it grabs you early and doesn’t let go, offering plenty of thrills along the way. In fact, “Catching Fire” is one of the best action films of the year for moviegoers of any age.

Even if you are unfamiliar with “The Hunger Games” phenomenon, you don’t have to be put off. Impressively, Lawrence and screenwriters Simon Beaufoy and Michael deBruyn deftly interweave key elements throughout, allowing you to understand what’s going on, without easing up on the tension - or worse, boring us.

While the first movie - which took in $691.2 million globally - primarily revolved around teens, this movie has a much more decidedly grown-up feel. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss, originally seemed somewhat ill-cast in the role of the story’s tough 16-year-old heroine. At 21, she felt a bit too old. While age may have mattered more in the books (which I have not read), in the movies she’s primarily an action figure - young, yes, but not tied to a lot of teen angst, and the “Catching Fire” filmmakers recognized it.

In the 20 months since the first film was released, Lawrence has shown us a mature presence, winning an acting Oscar as a young widow in “Silver Linings Playbook.” Although she is supposed to be only a bit older in “Catching Fire,” Lawrence’s Katniss definitely comes across as a woman, and it makes a difference. She is no longer an innocent, which makes her a more interesting and nuanced character, and Lawrence is more comfortable in Katniss’ skin, demonstrating a movie-star quality in her performance, even if she occasionally purses her lips too much.

The story takes place a year after Katniss has won the 74th Hunger Games, a brutal survivalist televised entertainment that is meant to distract the poor from the oppression of the country’s totalitarian regime. Her win has secured more food for her district, but she used trickery to save fellow contestant Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), a longtime friend. That doesn’t sit well with the country’s President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Any defiance of authority is treated with repression, and the young warrior’s popularity worries him.

In the eyes of the TV audience, Katniss and Peeta are an item, although she secretly loves Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), her hunting partner. Snow sends Katniss and Peeta on a victory tour of the other districts to promote morale, but he has other motives. The president and his new chief gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, with the right amount of shadiness), have devised a kind of all-star game for the 75th Hunger Games, pitting past winners against each other. In the meantime, Snow is viciously clamping down on the districts, which are showing signs of restlessness and rebellion, sending white-clad stormtroopers to pacify the people.

The games in “Catching Fire” bring a number of interesting new characters, notably Jena Malone as an ax-wielding rebel, an oddball nerdy couple dubbed Nuts and Volts (Amanda Plummer and Jeffrey Wright) and Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin), who seems like a charming psychopath but may actually have a heart. The newly designed games also bring devilish challenges for Kat and Peeta, not just from the seasoned killers but from Heavensbee adding environmental dangers to the contest such as poison fog, deadly baboons and bloody rain.

Back for the sequel, and each lending some fun to the proceedings, are Elizabeth Banks as Katniss’ and Peeta’s ditzy handler, Woody Harrelson as their alcoholic trainer, Lenny Kravitz as Katniss’ fashion designer and Stanley Tucci as the insipid TV host Caesar Flickerman. Lawrence gets a number of costume changes as she goes on tour, and there is a cool moment where a wedding dress is changed into a mockingjay outfit, a symbol of the resistance.

No one should overplay the political implications of “Catching Fire.” Like most of these intricate fantasy adventure-land stories, there are some silly or clunky parts. Thankfully there are few in this film, which doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sure, there are ideas in it, but at its heart, “Catching Fire” is mostly good, old-fashioned entertainment, like the “Star Wars” movies are at their best. In this film, the regime is evil but little beyond that matters.

Give director Lawrence (no relation to his star) credit for building up the feeling of dread and oppression that grips the country with his steely cold landscapes. A parade scene for the upcoming games gives off a fascist “Triumph of the Will” vibe, while the fight sequences are taut, visceral and anything but glamorous.

Often second films in a trilogy are place-setters for the finales, but “Catching Fire” raises the stakes in the game, and with it, the franchise truly catches fire. A lot of the credit goes to Lawrence - both of them, really - but the director proved to be the right choice to take over from Gary Ross, who helmed the first film.

Lawrence is already at work on the third book, “Mockingjay,” which will be divided into two films, the first of which will be released next November. While “Catching Fire” could easily stand on its own, it also should make audiences hungry for the next installment.

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